Mar 06 2009
It's a common misconception that web design is all about the visual look and feel of a website. That it's the colors and the layout and the snazzy Photoshop effects. In truth, that's only one part of good web design.
Good web design encompasses three elements (in no particular order):
- Aesthetic design
- UI (user interface) design
- Information design
Aesthetic design
The aesthetic component, simply put, is the overall visual look and feel of the site. It's the color palette and style (e.g., rounded corners, light vs. dark color palettes, etc.). But it's also more than that and is actually a lot more difficult than most think or make it out to be. The aesthetic piece of design needs to not only be visually appealing, it needs to be appropriate. And that's where a lot of folks misunderstand design. You can have the coolest design in the world but if it doesn't make sense for a particular website then it's just wrong. That's one of the reasons Comic Sans shouldn't be used by companies and why templates are rarely a good idea.
User interface design
This is the part that tends to separate web designers from print designers. UI Design is the arrangement of various elements that will determine how a user interacts with the site. It's about making the site intuitive and usable. It's a critical component of web design that when done well, it isn't even noticeable. The design isn't in your way. But when done poorly it's immediately noticeable and just gets in the way of the user experience.
Information design
The third element in good web design – information design – is how information is organized and presented on a site. While this will typically will be relatively easy on smaller sites, it gets increasingly difficult on larger sites. Either way, a big part of this is typography, especially when you consider that people simply read differently when reading online versus reading something in print.
All together
When all three of these are put together they form really good web design. Leaving one of these elements out means something is being sacrificed or overlooked. Usually it's usability which, depending on how bad it is, will have a negative effect on visitors' desire to come back to the site. When all three are done well, a unified site is created that is greater than the sum of its parts (gestalt for you art or design majors). That then translates into a site that not only looks good, but that is usable and is well on its way to producing good results.